Richard Aslin (ICD ’75), William R. Kenan Professor of brain and cognitive sciences at the University of Rochester, has been honored with the University of Minnesota’s Outstanding Achievement Award, the highest non-degree award conferred on distinguished alumni by the University. Aslin accepted the award at a reception on Friday, April 17, at Northrop Auditorium. Linda Cohen, Regent at the University of Minnesota presented the award. (pictured: Jean Quam, Dean, College of Education and Human Development; Richard Aslin; Megan Gunnar, Institute of Child Development; and Linda Cohen, Regent, University of Minnesota.)

Aslin recalls his doctoral studies at the Institute of Child Development as being unusual because students were “really encouraged to follow their own interests.” In her introductory remarks at the award ceremony, Megan Gunnar, Director and Regents Professor at the Institute, described Aslin as one of ‘the whiz kids’ she heard about when she arrived at the Institute as a young assistant professor in 1979. “These were the students,” she said, “who came in to the ‘Tute and powered through the program, teaching the faculty as much as the faculty taught them.”

Aslin’s research focuses on exploring and understanding how human infants obtain information about the external world. Aslin asks the question: “What mechanisms allow infants to acquire this initial level of information and how does that information guide subsequent learning?” In 2014, Aslin was one of four psychological scientists inducted into the National Academy of Sciences.

The Outstanding Achievement Award recognizes former students or graduates of the University who have achieved unusual distinction in their field, profession or in public service and who have shown exceptional achievement and leadership on a community, state, national or international level. You may read more about the award and Aslin’s work here.